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How Karma Harms and Helps Generosity Toward Those in Need.

Cindel J M White1, Aiyana K Willard2

  • 1York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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Summary

Belief in karma can justify social inequalities but also encourages generosity. Reminders of karma increase helping, particularly for those whose misfortune is not their fault, highlighting reasons for hardship.

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external/internal attributionshelpingjusticekarmavictim blaming

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Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Cross-Cultural Psychology
  • Belief Systems

Background:

  • Belief in karma is prevalent across cultures and influences social perceptions.
  • Understanding how karma shapes helping behaviors and justifications for inequality is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the cross-cultural effects of belief in karma on victim blaming and helping behaviors.
  • To examine how karma framing influences generosity based on recipient need and attributions for misfortune.

Main Methods:

  • Three cross-cultural studies (N=6,049) conducted in India, Singapore, and the United States.
  • Experimental manipulations involving reminders of karma and varying recipient characteristics.
  • Measurement of system-justifying beliefs, generosity, and attributions for financial hardship.

Main Results:

  • Belief in karmic causality positively predicted system-justifying beliefs but also encouraged generosity.
  • Karma framing altered the importance of recipient characteristics in predicting giving.
  • Experimental karma reminders reliably increased generosity towards recipients whose misfortune was not their fault.

Conclusions:

  • Karmic beliefs can simultaneously legitimize social inequalities and motivate helping behaviors.
  • Karma influences responses to misfortune by drawing attention to naturalistic explanations for hardship.
  • The impact of karma on generosity is sensitive to the perceived reasons behind an individual's misfortune.